Thursday 14 August 2014 00.52 EDT
First published on Thursday 14 August 2014 00.51 EDT

A complaint alleging racial vilification of Jews under 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been lodged about the Sydney Morning Herald’s publication of a cartoon and a column about Israel last month.

Under Section 18C it is unlawful “to do an act that is reasonably likely to ‘offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate’ someone because of their race or ethnicity”, the Human Rights Commission says.

The cartoon, by Glen Le Lievre, has been retracted and the paper apologised for publishing it after Jewish leaders said it was racist.

The paper has stood by the Mike Carlton column even though its author has since resigned over comments he made to some readers in emails and on Twitter.

However, it is possible that the complaint will be thrown out because it is understood that the complainant – said to be Wayne Karlen, a constant critic of the paper on Twitter – is not Jewish.

According to the act: “Only an ‘aggrieved person’ may lodge a complaint. In the case of the racial hatred provisions, an aggrieved person is someone from the group targeted by the behaviour who is offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated because of his or her race.”

The law also allows for fair comment, including by the media which is allowed to present “fair and accurate reporting on any matter of public interest”.

This last exception enables the media to report on public issues, such as racial incitement or racially offensive conduct. It also allows editorial opinions and the like, providing they are published without malice.

Karlen has been talking on Twitter about using 18C against the Herald since the column and cartoon appeared last month.

The Australian reported on Thursday that Karlen “decided to lodge the complaint on Tuesday after the ABC’s Media Watch defended the cartoon and Carlton the night before”.

Karlen told the Australian: “The suggestion by the public broadcaster and others that this cartoon is acceptable must be refuted in the strongest terms and those responsible for its dissemination must be held responsible.

“The publication of this cartoon has caused offence to and racially vilifies Jews and was done to portray Jews as murderers of men, women and children for entertainment. The publication of this cartoon has caused intimidation and contributed to the Jewish community becoming afraid for their safety living in Australia and has offended their friends and supporters.”

However, Media Watch did not defend the cartoon on Monday night’s program. “Now we agree that that cartoon went too far,” it said.

Guardian Australia has asked Karlen for comment.

Carlton said he knew nothing about the complaint.

Sean Aylmer, Fairfax Media’s group director for news and business media, has said the Carlton column of 26 July was “fine” but the way Carlton responded to readers was “totally inappropriate”.

The government recently did an about-turn on its promise to repeal the 18C provision, angering the News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt who was found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act over two articles he wrote in 2009 headlined “It’s so hip to be black” and “White fellas in the black”.

Bolt was sued in the federal court by nine Aboriginal people who alleged the Herald Sun articles implied light-skinned people who identified as Aboriginal did so for personal gain.